13 May, 2008

May 13th, 2008 | WASHINGTON -- John Hagee, an influential televangelist who endorsed John McCain, is apologizing to Catholics for referring to the Roman Catholic Church as "the great whore" and calling it "the apostate church."

[Source - Associated Press]

Good start. Now apologize for blaming Katrina on homosexuality and 9/11 on secularism, you worthless son of a bitch scumbag. If there is a hell, you will definitely be in it in the afterlife, you utter cunt.

10 May, 2008

What does it say about America when the best drama on TV is science fiction?

We have given ourselves over to parable and burlesque in our entertainment. But it begs the question, "why do we need to entertain ourselves?"

I think the metaphor of "holding a mirror up to reality" is good. But I think that entertainment also serves the proverbial "soul" the same way religion does. So, no wonder religion fights as hard against other religions as it does against art, the non-movement movement.

Well, I take that back. Movements in art are motivating, just like religion. But religion leans toward more organized, authoritarian movements, and art has always been religion's free-form cousin.

Just as "a DJ saved my life", art saved the life of Michaelangelo, surely a homosexual living on the cusp of the darkest of ages in Italy, supported by a closeted Vatican and moneyed aristocrats and merchants.

Then, also, draw the parallels between the art and music movements in the 1960s and 1970s and the creation of one of America's lasting cultural institutions: Star Trek.

In many ways, Star Trek was the free-love movement vicariously offered to the "can't get laid" set on the small screen. Here was man and woman's potential.. really, human potential as a whole, represented as a Utopian future without war, disease, poverty or greed.

Well of course Star Trek got a lot more interesting when the cracks in the system were shown. Some of these innovations came with "The Next Generation", aptly named because it, in 1989, brought my generation into the Star Trek fold. Most came with a much-ignored but critically acclaimed off-shoot called "Deep Space Nine."

"Deep Space Nine" broke many of the unspoken rules of the too-perfect Star Trek universe: thou shalt not foment dissent between Federation allies, thou shalt not invoke religious wars, thou shalt not question the goodness of the Federation, thou shalt not make morally ambiguous decisions and mostly, thou shalt not pin humanity down as the underdog and suggest that they may not win.

All of the things that made "Deep Space Nine" interesting were by and large the result of the direction of junior television producer Ronald D. Moore. However, Moore's vision of the Roddenberry's universe led to a great deal of controversy and Moore's eventual departure from the show.

Years later my roommate at the time Larry and I were watching an episode of "Stargate: SG1" where during a commercial break the Sci-Fi Channel ran a minute long trailer for a mini-series based on the canonically cheesy late-1970s sci-fi TV series "Battlestar Gallactica" that would star Edward James Olmos (of "Miami Vice" fame) in the lead and, shockingly, cast the swaggering fighter pilot Starbuck as a woman!

"I hope that doesn't suck," I told Larry.

"It's going to suck, I'm sure of it" he responded.

Needless to say, the mini-series and resulting Sci-Fi Channel series has exceeded my expectations in every way. And it is all thanks to the vision of that junior producer of "Deep Space Nine" fame, Ronald D. Moore.

Edit: the reason I was prompted to post this was because of Nana Visitor's guest spot on this week's BSG. Nana Visitor played Major Kira on DS9.

02 May, 2008

<chr1s> security through obscurity has been an unmitigated disaster for microsoft<stim> less garbage out there tailered for you<Adversary> linux himself said it, you shouldnt have to deal with the os. you shouldnt know its there.<stim> linus is a tool<chr1s> agreed<stim> who was never in line with linux<Adversary> heh<stim> stallman is far more "linux" than linus can ever hope to be<badlogic> windows 9 microsoft linux :)<stim> for the argument consider linux being a collection of apps, not just the kernel<Adversary> anyways... this all misses the point...<stim> that you have a retarded troll<stim> about licensing of other peoples software?<Adversary> i say we trolled eachother<stim> u trolled my nuts, with your mouth<chr1s> i like how the linux community at large keeps declaring the death of zfs, and everyone else keeps ignoring them<Adversary> we know where we stand and why<Adversary> and your opinion is that of a facist hippy!<stim> zfs is dead<chr1s> tell that to my managers<stim> whats their emails<chr1s> actually, dont<chr1s> and here's why<stim> :P<chr1s> zfs is easy to manage<chr1s> like, ridicukously easy<chr1s> and freebsd is building full support into the 8.0 kernel<chr1s> prediction: in 6-9 months, the linux community will declare zfs as the next best thing<chr1s> you heard it here first, bitches<stim> shah<stim> try zfs+<chr1s> next time you google something to figure out what i'm talking about, try not to make it totally obvious<stim> zfs+ isnt real<chr1s> neither is RAID45<stim> either is the cake<chr1s> be the spoon<Adversary> as a local filesystem will the server side ppl really like it that much?<Adversary> or am i missing something?<chr1s> zfs+nfs or zfs+iscsi<chr1s> also, local only is a misnomer<chr1s> zfs is agnostic about underlaying block devices<chr1s> anyway, its legitimate enough that we have iscsi vlans designed into our back wires<chr1s> mostly for oracle RAC<chr1s> so, to say zfs is dead is at best premature<chr1s> and at worst completely wrong and fucking retarded<stim> what if one were to say it was gay<chr1s> you'd be right<chr1s> but gay as in fashion, art and music, not gay as in bad and weak<Adversary> looks very interesting tho<Adversary> have a good doc on it? the wiki is lacking<chr1s> go to docs.sun.com and check their whitesheet out<stim> trusting sun<stim> fools!<chr1s> sun.. the tech industry's scrappy hanger on<chr1s> just like hillary!<stim> bbl, cartoons<chr1s> man, every time i see an IHOP commercial i think to myself "no wonder america has a diabetes epidemic"<Adversary> heh. lifeforce holds up<chatboss> wl<Adversary> click and clack are in a movie<Adversary> Car of the Future: Engineering for the Environment<chr1s> saw it<chr1s> you need to watch more pbs<Adversary> i watch alot of pbs. having no cable tv and all<chr1s> i tivoed it last week<chr1s> it was interesting, but i wish it went into more detail<chr1s> like, exactly how much fossil fuel is expended just growing corn for ethanol, and the intrenched system of corporate welfare that surrounds the corn industry in the US<chr1s> and how hydrogen fuel cells also require an expenditure of energy to dope the hydrogen atoms with electrons<chr1s> things they touch on but don't really dig deep into<Adversary> these things are always like that<chr1s> frontline is at least reliably detailed<chr1s> they've been dumbing down nova for years<chr1s> critical analysis is a lost art<Adversary> brando<chr1s> brawndo<Adversary> brawndo<chr1s> its got electrolytes, which your body craves